Losing its cooperative character

I met a friend at a cooperative dinner last night.

He made this observation, "Mr. Tan, when you were with Income, you kept the expenses low and offered an alternative to the people that were different from the other insurance companies. I can see that much of what you have done is being reversed and Income is now becoming like the other insurance companies. I feel quite sad for the policyholders of Income."

I told him that I agree with this observation. I hope that the management and board of Income will realise that many policyholders feel this way.

Free surplus in the Life Fund

I raise the issue about why the yield on the Growth policy was below the "actual experience of the Life Fund".

In his reply, Mr. Ken Ng from Income said,

I would like to highlight an additional consideration in 2008. Markets were very turbulent because of the sub-prime crisis at the time the bonus declaration was made. Much of the capital appreciation enjoyed in the 2007 has been reversed. They are still are very turbulent. It would not have been prudent to make an significant increase in bonuses and raise expectations at such a time of uncertainty.

I asked Mr. Ken Ng for the following information:

1. How much was the free surplus in the Life Fund at the end of 2007 (that was not distributed to policyholders)
2 How much of this free surplus has since been reversed?

There was no reply and no acknowledgement to my question for about one week.